One-Way Street
by SpiritPrincess101
Summary: Sousuke finally gets the truth thrown in his face: his obsession isn't only his problem. Yamazaki Sousuke x OC
1. Standstill

Hi everyone! Wow it's been so long since I last posted...

And yes I'm so sorry for practically abandoning previous stories... I swear I'll get to those eventually...

Everyone is welcome to comment with requests for prompts / characters! I'm just writing what comes to mind!

Hope you all enjoy!

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"I can't do this anymore!" A loud shout resounds throughout the house. She stormed up to the room that she and her boyfriend shared.

Said boyfriend yelled with similar volume, "Nanami, wait!" he reached out a hand to grab her arm, but immediately dropped his arm and grunted quietly, although unnoticed by her. Ignoring the searing pain in his shoulder, he followed, hot on her heels up the stairs.

"Leave me alone!" Nanami began throwing things into a duffle. She wasn't even sure what she was doing, or how things had ended up like this, or where she was going to go. All she could think of, all she knew was that it hurt, and it burned, and she was breaking inside. Her vision was already too blurry to see what she was putting into the bag, but she felt around for daily essentials, clothes, _anything_. She just wanted out.

"NANAMI." Sousuke shouted. From behind, he firmly placed his hands on her shoulders, with the intentions of forcing her to turn around to face him. But the moment his hands touched her, his eyes widened.

She was trembling, shaking like a half-torn flag after a rainstorm. Her hands had now stopped their desperate "packing," and had paused on top of the miniature pile of random possessions. Sousuke watched, in half agony, half shock, as one drop. Two drops. and then three, trickled down her chin and onto her clothes, dotting them with slightly darker spots.

"When did swimming take priority over me?" _It hasn't-_

"When did broken promises and nights alone become normal?" _I'm sorry, I'm so sorry-_

Nanami whirled around and threw herself into Sousuke's chest. While surprised, automatically his arms closed around her, wrapping around her shoulders lovingly, but strong enough to tell her _I'm here, I'm here. I'm not leaving_.

He couldn't find words to express the frantic blur in his mind right now. He hadn't noticed anything wrong. But now he understood - the occasional "dead battery" excuses whenever he called home to tell her he was going to have to miss their date because of a tournament. The box of chocolates that he had happened to find, thrown into the garbage after he stayed over at Haruka's for a couple days to be closer to the pool for the practices before nationals. The times when he had commented on how she seemed to be putting on more makeup under her eyes when he came home after a full month of swim meets overseas.

 _Nanami, Nanami, Nanami._ He wanted to punch himself for what he had done. He hadn't been fair to her, and he had been taking her for granted just because they had known each other for so long and knew each other so well - or at least he thought he had known her well enough. He wasn't so sure anymore...

She continued to sob into his chest, and Sousuke gripped her shoulders with his good arm tighter, his brows were knit together in pain. Pain he had brought upon himself, and her - the one thing he had promised to protect since even before they had started dating.

A muffled wail came from below again, and he looked down as she began to weakly hit his chest with loose fists, knowing that his strong pec muscles wouldn't feel a thing.

"When did this love become a one-way street?"

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Well, Part II is coming very soon! hope this wasn't too angsty, Part II will be a bit fluffier *spoils* reviews would be lovely~


	2. Lifeline

CH2!

Some fluff to make up for the rather depressing start of Part I...

Enjoy! reviews and requests welcome via any method/messaging!

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 _"When did this love become a one-way street?"_

Sousuke's jaw tightened, his throat filled with a lump of guilt not there only moments before.

He now brought his second arm to join his first one around his girlfriend's back. Again attempting to ignore any discomfort in his right shoulder, he tightened his grip and buried his face into her hair. He didn't really know what he was going to do, but some part of him just wanted to feel her, smell her, hear her voice - even if it was screaming his name because she was too hurt to love him anymore. He just wanted proof that she was here, to reconnect with the lifeline that had always grounded him, kept his heart safe.

But then again, he thought with a frown and half-lidded teal eyes, in return, he had sacrificed her heart instead.

He tentatively brought his right hand to Nanami's head, attempting to stroke her hair - something he knew that calmed her down almost always.

In response, she flung out her own hand to whack his roughly away. Realizing the direction his arm was going too late to hide it, Sousuke groaned loudly as his shoulder felt a jolt of fire course through the joint. His other hand immediately came to grip his right shoulder, and he dropped to the ground on one knee.

Nanami's eyes grew alarmed and she kneeled quickly. Rubbing her eyes to get rid of the tears, she said through her sniffles, "Sousuke? Sousuke, what's wrong?"

She reached out to cover his much larger hand with her own, on his shoulder. All of her own pain was forgotten for now, she only wanted to know what was causing cold sweat to run down her boyfriend's face, and the tenseness in his jaw.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, and then as the pain ebbed slightly, Sousuke sat down completely onto the floor. Nanami remained kneeling, wiping away the sweat with her sleeve and staring anxiously at Sousuke as he took shallow breaths.

"What happened..." she eventually ventured into deep waters with a quiet, worried question.

All of the determination and strength that she had seen in his eyes when he spoke about swimming was gone. Now, the turquoise depths were replaced with desperation and disappointment. The blue in those eyes that she had thought resembled the sky - now she could only think of them as the bluest depths of hopelessness.

Sousuke sighed. "My shoulder's gone."

"What?"

He only repeated it, not a hint of anger towards her at all. "My shoulder is gone."

"Wrecked." "Broken." He then snorted. "Along with the entirety of my swimming career."

Nanami could only sit there silently. She was stunned. Some little devil in her brain was chanting that this was what he deserved, that this was what she had wanted, because now she would be the thing he would hang on to, not swimming, not anyone else.

But she couldn't bring herself to actually believe that.

The Sousuke she loved was a swimmer. The pool depths had always been a part of his life, and she knew that better than anyone else - he wasn't okay.

Another self-deprecating snort broke her out of her reverie. He now was gazing at her with those sad, sad eyes. "Guess this was karma for taking you for granted, huh?" He placed a warm hand around her nape, bringing her closer to lay a soft kiss on her forehead.

"I'm so sorry." He stood up, using his good arm to push himself off the ground. "If you don't want to be together anymore, that's understandable. I deserve it, and you deserve so much better than me." His throat was dry as he forced the words out of his mouth. "Let's break up."

He turned to leave the room, but then felt a warm pair of small arms circle his waist from behind, tugging him and making him pause mid-step.

"It's so unfair."

"It's so unfair how much you made me fall in love with you, then broke my heart, and then now you're the one saying we should break up?"

Sousuke felt warm drops soak into the back of his T-shirt, as Nanami continued, "I'm still mad at you."

He nodded. "I know."

"I'm also mad at you for hiding your shoulder injury."

"..." his eyelids closed. "I'm sorry."

"But I still love you."

The lump in his throat was still there, but now it was no longer from guilt. His heart swelled with hope and affection, and he turned around. "Are you sure?"

Her face still hidden from his view, now buried in the material of his T-shirt at his chest, she nodded. "Mm."

"I'll be with you, through the good and the bad. And I don't want you to give up." She looked up, and Sousuke noted tears in her eyes again. "The Yamazaki Sousuke I know would never give up on his dreams until he was satisfied. The Sousuke I love makes miracles happen. You were always the only one I wanted. The only one I needed... and still do."

"And besides..." one hand slid down to her belly area, and she rubbed gently.

"I guess, in the end, this little one will need you too."

Sousuke's eyes widened until they looked like goldfish eyes. "Are you serious?"

Nanami blushed, a pretty pink scattered across her cheekbones. She nodded. "Mhm."

Sousuke's usually stoic face now transformed into a enormous grin, his eyes almost slits in his joy at the news. He knelt again in front of Nanami, his hands on her belly. "Do you think I could hear the heartbeat right now?"

She laughed gently, shaking her head. "I'm only a month in."

Sousuke shrugged, that crooked boyish smile still on his face. "I guess not, then huh." A thought passed through his mind, and his eyes again turned up towards Nanami's face.

Something in his expression made her heart beat faster, and she breathed, "What is it?"

"Nanami Sasahara," he coughed awkwardly, and then took one of her hands into his much larger one, kissing it. "Despite all of my mistakes, and so many faults, and just so many reasons to not be with me...Will you... marry me?"

Her other hand shot up to cover her mouth, new tears welling up in her eyes as she looked down at the father of her child. He knew she couldn't really process everything that had just happened. Hell, he barely understood how they had gone from fighting to now him kneeling and proposing on the floor. But they were here, and he couldn't imagine any other way that they could've gotten here.

"Let me," he began. "Let me take care of you," he grinned, "and our child."

When she nodded vigorously, unable to string together a proper sentence out of shock and surprise and so many other wonderful emotions, he stood up and brushed away her tears. After kissing the top of her head, he brought her into his arms again. This time, she returned the gesture, and he relished the feeling of her arms around his back, adorable in her attempt to squeeze tightly.

"Thank you." So many unspoken words went into that, but he knew she got it. It was something _only_ she would get. And he wasn't having it any other way.

Thank you.

For trusting me.

For being my lifeline.

For letting me love you.

For tying us together. Forever.

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So this fic actually came about due to one of my own experiences, although they got a much happier ending than I did lol OTL  
But I just hope that everyone in the world eventually finds that ONE person that can make them happy, even if it sometimes means a lot of bumps in the roads, or fighting, or detours. Because we'll all get there one day. Just trust.


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